Merry and Bright

In an effort to be "ready" for the holiday season, I have been trying to think of ways to help others. I truly believe that our problems, trials, don't feel so "heavy" when we can serve others or find ways to help others instead of ourselves. So here's one of the Random acts of Kindness I am doing this season, and this one involved my family.

I handmade some door hangers using scrapbook and Christmas craft supplies to surprise some unsuspecting members of the community. I convinced my family to take a drive around town with me to see all the lights and decorations (at night). I asked my teenage son and my husband to each pick 3 houses they liked to award one of these door hangers too. My one year old daughter and I took care of the others. We left these hangers on those houses' doors as a surprise. On the back we wrote, "Thank you for making the season Merry and Bright. We enjoyed your decorations tonight."

This was a wonderful, heartwarming, and fun experience for my family.

Getting Creative Can Cure the Blahs!

Yes, I was feeling blah this past week and weekend. I wanted to do something to get out of it but was struggling finding the right thing. Then I decided to put my own needs and the needs of my household out of my mind and sit down to make some cards for neighbors who were having various "blahs" of their own. So I tried to chase away the "winter is coming" blues, troubling buying a new home frustrations, and celebrated the coming arrival of a new little girl (not so much a bad blah) by making some cards using up some scraps and recycling products of past projects (altered trading card/rolodex card) and using a couple new stamps and new Ranger distress candy and stickles. Yes, my day got brighter, my own blahs were left behind for the day. Doing something for others, just for the fun of it sure can make our own troubles seem less important, and more manageable.

 I must make time to get creative more often!

time flies...

yes, time flies when you are having fun being a mom! It's been a long time since I last visited my own blog. It is time to start making time in my schedule to get back to doing things that are on my list of things to do! Time for me to schedule ME time into my already busy days. Time to... go take care of my little 18 month old baby girl who is crying for some attention...

Oh dear.. my time is up! Time to remember to take each day One Step at a time!

Smashed Peas and Carrots: Projects for Your Little Ones from Smashed Peas and Carrots

Smashed Peas and Carrots: Projects for Your Little Ones from Smashed Peas and Carrots

I'm inpressed! I can only hope to be so creative!

Happy Easter

Time is flying by! It is Easter weekend. I decided to recycle some of the baby food jars and containers we have piling up to make little easter treat jars for little Marilee to give out to our family this weekend at our Williams family dinner. If I had started them sooner, I would have painted the lids so I didn't see the metal rims. Oh well, for a quick two day project working around a very active and inquisitive one year old, I think they turned out cute. I played with paper scraps, ribbons, stickers, stamps and a variety of glue to try to get these done. Happy Easter to all my family and friends.

If you want Rainbows...

If you want Rainbows, you gotta have Rain!
I'm sitting here at my conputer and just looked up to my calendar. This rainbow quote is printed there. Sometimes life can be hard and we question why we have trials and hardships, difficult things to deal with that happen to us or those we love. We want to have "rainbows" instead. I remember when I was around 15 I wrote a poem that had the basic message that we have trials and strife because if we didn't we would have a boring life with nothing to do. Even though having a day without anything going wrong would seem like a welcome blessing, having every day like that might indeed get boring. So, we need to look for the positives, go jump in puddles, enjoy the raindrops as they fall. The rest of the message on my calendar pages says "By overcoming adversity, we find the joy in everything."
So, as we wait for the results of the two days of testing with Robert and more questionaires and information the team of doctors got from Dale and I, life will go on, day by day. I hope I'll see rainbows everyday and will try to look for them as I live each day, step by step.

Busy busy busy...

I can't believe we are into April already. Time sure flies. Little Marilee made some first steps this past week towards potty training. Yes, she has been going pee in her new potty (when Mommy catches her at the right time), and today, she also went ... the other thing...! Yes, Both ends made a deposit into her potty this morning and she and I celebrated by clapping our hands and then calling Grandma Pilling to give her a report. The rest of my day today is being spent getting ready to travel to Calgary tomorrow for two days. Robert has tests to do at the Children's Development Center with various doctors. We hope these tests will give us some answers into understanding Robert and his behaviors better. Cody, our dog, is going to a new dog-day care center to stay while we are away. Marilee, Robert, and I are just getting over our colds and now Dale is getting cold symptoms. Oh Dear. Hope all that we have to do this week we will do safely, and hope we can all be healthy and happy too while we are away. 

Busy Week in review

WOW! The week has flown by with something happening every day. Trips to pet groomers and vet for vaccine updates for our cocker spaniel, first birthday celebrations for our little ballerina, Marilee who turned one (where has the year gone?), and visits to doctors office and then health clinic for Marilee too for first year check up and then vaccinations. To top it off, our son Robert got sick and stayed home from school these past two days. Now I'm also getting sick. Oh and we also had a visit to the Optomitrist in there somewhere with the whole family getting eye exams and Robert and I needing new perscriptions/glasses. I went to pick up my new glasses today and took Robert along because I was sure they said on phone both pairs were in, but Robert's were not done.  So, now I'm getting used to the supposedly correct perscription for my eyes with these new glasses and have a headache because of the adjustment on top of already feeling achey and yucky from this throat and nose cold setting in. YUCK! I hope little Marilee doesn't get sick too. I guess I might not know if it would be a reaction from the vaccinations or if she got sick from me is she develops any symptoms. All in all.. it's just been another crazy week in my life and I only got through it one day and one step at a time as usual.

Step by Step

In wondering whether or not to become a "blogger", I've learned a few things; most importantly, this is not a quick process. Creating a Blog Spot requires a lot of steps, and will take me a lot of more steps to learn all I need to to have fun with it. Step by step, it can get done. So, this got me to thinking about a lot of stuff today. Life happens step by step.  Whether it is baking a batch of cookies, teaching my soon to be one year old daughter to walk, creating a scrapbook page, renovating our home, or so many other daily tasks that must get done ... it all happens step by step. Eurika! The perfect name for my blog if I am going to start one! So, here I go into the land of blogging, "step by step".